Globally Green Living

If you’re planning to go on a picnic, use some of these tips for making your outing greener.

• Use recycled paper napkins or cloth rather than virgin paper napkins.

• Use reusable containers instead of plastic wrap or baggies.

Bring your own cups and plates from home. If you’re worried about breaking your good dishes, consider a set of recycled plastic plates from Preserve.

They’re tough, reusable, come in pretty colors and there are tumblers to match. The table wear pack includes 10 small plates, 8 large plates, and 8 knives forks and spoons. They come in cheerful pear green or berry red.

• Pick food that is grown locally to save on gas and support local farmers.

• Bring a thermos to store soups, coffee or tea from home and keep them warm.

For more ideas, see:

• Green Living’s Green Your Picnic Basket

• Have a green, litterless picnic, Cheryl Binning

• Color your picnic or barbecue green, Danny SEO

It’s been a bit of a busy weekend but productive since the bills are paid and the kids have some new clothes. I bought yet another reusable bag because it was too cute and colorful not to grab. I have a bunch of Presidents Choice bags and they’re alright but they’re black and not exactly summery.

I may have mentioned the website Reusable Bags before but it’s worth mentioning again since they have a large selection of totes. They also have some interesting facts about how plastic bags are polluting the earth.

Today’s song is by Chicane and called No Ordinary Morning. The video features scenes from Planet Earth.

Since I skipped last Saturday’s songs, today I found a couple for you. I hope everyone is having a good weekend. I puttered around catching up on housework, made some candles, gardened and went for a hike in the sun.

First up is North American Wildlife with Vanessa Williams singing Colors of the Wind. It includes photos of bears, moose, deer, horses, birds, wolves and more.

Colors of the Wind Lyrics:

You think I’m an ignorant savage,
and you’ve been so many places,
I guess it must be so, but still I cannot see,
How the savage one is me,
How can there be so much that you don’t know,
You don’t know,

You think you own whatever land you land on,
The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim,
But I know every rock, and tree and creature,
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name,

You think the only people who are people,
Are the people who look and think like you,
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger,
You learn things you never knew, you never knew,

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon?
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain?
Can you paint with all the colours of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colours of the wind?

Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest,
Come taste the sun-sweet berries of the earth,
Come roll in all the riches all around you,
And for once, never wonder what they’re worth,

The rainstorm and the river are my brothers,
The heron and the otter are my friends,
And we are all connected to each other,
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends,

How high does the sycamore grow?
If you cut it down, then you’ll never know,
And you’ll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon,
whether we are white or copper-skinned,
Can you can sing with all the voices of the mountain?
Can you paint with all the colours of the wind?

You can own the Earth and still,
All you’ll own is earth until,
You can paint ,with all the colours of the wind…

(Thanks to Lyrics Mode)

This next one is a beautiful slide show of mountains and other scenery with music by Kenny G.

Happy Earth day all! We kept busy puttering around cleaning our neighborhood in the afternoon.

In the morning a friend and I hit a used bookstore and got a whole box of books for five dollars! I grabbed a bit of everything including an Indian cookbook, climate change, crafts, personal development, organic gardening and gardening in small spaces. A few fiction novels for fun too of course.

My mom was telling me today about this hardy grass seed she bought called Eco-Lawn and she is really excited about it. It’s low maintenance and does not require frequent watering or pesticides. It’s comprised of seven different grasses but the percentage formula is a secret. You can only buy it in 5 or 50lb bags, which seems a bit of a jump. It sounds like it will be much easier on my mother anyway so hope it works out.

• Saturday’s earth song video is Imagine by John Lennon with photos from National Geographic, thanks to Stone9kung from Youtube.

Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

Don’t forget tomorrow at 8:00pm is Earth Hour. Millions will be turning their lights off for one hour to show they care by reducing their impact on the earth and helping to fight climate change.

This Nature Photo Slideshow With Music is brought to you by Jonathan Jessup, who takes breathtaking pictures of nature.

Today we’re featuring Within Temptation, a band from the Netherlands I have only been exposed to in the last year but they’ve been around for awhile.

I love their unique haunting style which has been described as Gothic Rock and Symphonic Metal. Sharon manages to sing both sweetly, softly and powerfully while the guitars and rest of the band follow suit seamlessly.

First up of course is Mother Earth:

Birds and butterflies
Rivers and mountains she creates
But you’ll never know
The next move she’ll make
You can try
But it is useless to ask why
Cannot control her
She goes her own way

She rules until the end of time
She gives and she takes
She rules until the end of time
She goes her own way

With every breath
And all the choices that we make
We are only passing through on her way
I find my strength
Believing that your soul lives on
Until the end of time
I’ll carry it with me

Once you will know my dear
You don’t have to fear
A new beginning always starts at the end
Until the end of time
She goes her own way
(Thanks to DarkLyrics.com)

• Another fitting song from Within Temptation is Stand My Ground.

I can see when you stay low nothing happens
Does it feel right ?

Late at night things I thought I put behind me,
haunt my mind

I just know there’s no escape now, once it sets it’s eyes on you
but I won’t run, have to stare it in the eye

Stand my ground, I won’t give in
No more denying, I gotta face it
Won’t close my eyes and hide the truth inside
If I don’t make it, someone else will
Stand My Ground

It’s all around getting stronger, coming closer
into my world

I can feel that it’s time for me to face it
can I take it?

Though this might just be the ending
of the life I held so dear
but I won’t run, there’s no turning back from here

Stand my ground, I won’t give in
No more denying, I gotta face it
Won’t close my eyes and hide the truth inside

(Thanks to Sing365.com)

Fight nature deficit disorder and get your family outside for an hour of unstructured time with nature. I was just mentioning that kids needed more unstructured play time and then I came across this Green Hour.

Create a Wildlife Habitat:

The National Wildlife Federation has information on how to create and maintain a wildlife habitat. It’s a great way for kids to get a hands on education and learn how to attract birds and butterflies even if they’re in the city.

You can make a Community Wildlife Habitat and have it certified through the National Wildlife Federation. Communities will learn about sustainable gardening, conserving water, planting native plants, composting and more.

It sounds like a wonderful way to get the community out and learn together. I’m excited about it! It’s the dead of winter here, but we’ll be ready for lots of gardening action come the spring. In the mean time birds still eat and we can work on making feeders and planning our community and wildlife habitat.

According to GreenHour.org children who regularly spend unstructured time outside:

· Play more creatively

· Have lower stress levels

· Have more active imaginations

· Become fitter and leaner

· Develop stronger immune systems

· Experience fewer symptoms of ADD and ADHD

· Have greater respect for themselves, for others, and for the environment

It makes sense to me because you don’t get fit sitting and watching television or playing video games. Creative play is important and although sports are great, a lot of them are very organized and structured. Children do need to use their imaginations and come up with their own activities.

Collecting rocks, pine cones and dandelions count as fun activities to me. I used to have a purse full of dandelions and I never thought I would say this but I miss it.

It turns out that forests and mangroves aren’t just a source of beauty (or even mosquitoes according to some), but also a source of protection from storms. We already suspected of this after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita wrecked havoc. Now we see it once again when hurricanes Dean and Felix landed in Central America. It seems rather logical but how come we’ve only figured this out in the 21st century?

I confess that I have a fascination for storms. Actually, it just crossed my mind that I dreamed of a tornado last night. I remember thinking in my dream “Wow, I’m actually seeing a tornado; most people never see one in their lives.” But it was all a dream, and I still have not seen one in my life.

Meanwhile in the real world, we continue to see with bewilderment, respect, and fear just how powerful a storm can be. Hurricane Felix has hit and we await Hurricane Henriette, the cause of the really beautiful image on this post. This year’s hurricane season is a lot more active than last year’s although quite not as dramatic as the year’s before last. It’s like a continuous reminder of how bad it can get when we least expect it.

I often think about how much is still unknown about our planet. It is amazing the beauty and the drama that unfold while we live our anonymous lives. Knowledge is our true immaterial legacy and yet it is also as fragile as the weakest of materials. Our understanding of things constantly evolves thanks to the many people who devote themselves to expand our knowledge. Those people who think that the mathematics, the chemistry, and the physics behind any natural phenomenon are as beautiful as the phenomenon itself, as Richard Feynman put it.

And soon we will learn much more about the ocean, which is the cradle of life in our planet, and that so many times we forget or take for granted.

During today’s evening walk, Alfred and I had the pleasure of observing dusk setting. And since we’re a couple of nosy bees we also observed how many lights were on in each house. That’s when it hit me that there were no lights or TVs on at our place. Thus another benefit of walking is that you’re not at home using up electricity. It might not be much but if more people and dogs (frogs too, occasionally…) did it, it would add up to a significant amount. Every little bit counts…

Humans sure are interesting creatures. Perhaps we are the only species who can really use reason to try to prevent an undesirable outcome instead of simply learning from past mistakes.

There are a bunch of smart people out there, scientists they are called, who think that the human effect on nature and future weather is too strong to ignore. They don’t think that any of these big storms–the Katrinas, Ritas and Deans of the world,– are necessarily connected to this effect but in the future it is likely that we may see more of them. We have had this information since before the big storms happened with alarming frequency, meaning we were warned in much advance.

Did we do anything about it? Not really! It takes destruction and death for us to do anything about it. That’s OK, some people say because humans adapt! Sure we do but those that don’t die. That’s why we have epidemics where millions of people die in a short amount of time. Do these adaptation-promoting epidemics mean that we should stop doing research trying to find vaccines and cures for incurable ailments? No! Well, then why should we stop spending our resources trying to figure out global warming and other global externalities? Why does it take people dying to make us pay attention?

I often think about the absurdity of someone paying a gym to go walk on a treadmill and then circling around the mall parking lot trying to find the closest parking possible. Why not park the farthest away? And while you’re at it start parking on the farthest spot at work as well. All those little steps add up in at least these many ways:

1. You’ll save money on gas
2. You’ll burn more calories
3. You won’t get as stressed because there are always tons of parking far away
4. You are less likely to hit a pedestrian when you back your car out of the parking spot because there aren’t as many pedestrians farther from the entrance of the store(s)
5. Since you won’t use the treadmill or drive as much, you’ll save fossil fuel
6. You’ll also reduce your carbon dioxide emissions

All of that and possibly more just from one small change!!!

What’s there not to love…

very much, actually! Could this flower be any more perfect? I simply bow to Mother Nature!!!

This gazania (not dahlia) was featured today on the NPR blog “Talking Plants.” Just absolutely breath-taking!!!

Or so it seems. Every time I call someone in Europe I am told of people who are on vacation, many of them at a beach somewhere. Well, I don’t think I will make it to a beach this year, but I still miss it quite a bit. Funny, the way things turn out. When I was a kid and my parents wanted to drive to the beach I was always trying to weasel out of going.

My favorite time at the beach is during the low tide when you have the baby waves come crawling through the sand trying to reach your feet. The sound of the ocean is also fabulous and rather relaxing. And the view, of course, is dazzling. You cannot feel blue after contemplating the blue ocean, can you???

OK, you got me. Sometimes going to the beach is no fun because it is dirty! Courtesy of the previous visitors…